80pc people unsatisfied with ongoing situation: Wali Massoud

KANDAHAR CITY (Pajhwok): Accompanied by a delegation, Ahmad Wali Massoud during a trip to southern Kandahar province on Wednesday said 80 percent of the Afghans “are unsatisfied with the ongoing situation in their country.”

Speaking at a press conference in Kandahar City, Massoud said that he had embarked on creating “Milli Wefaq” (national consensus) to get rid of the ongoing crisis and their trip to Kandahar was part of the process.

The press conference was held at the residence of Shah Wali Karzai, brother of former president Hamid Karzai in Aino Mina township.

The chairman of the Ahmad Shah Massoud Foundation said he met with influential figures and provincial council members in Kandahar and he came to the conclusion that the people in this province were tired of the current situation.

“Kandahar is important from many dimensions, this province is the security belt of the country, where hundreds of tribal elders were killed in targeted attacks over the last one decade”, he said.

“We have the same fate, our pains and problems are the same, we want to become united and show to the enemies that Afghanistan is our joint home, we should demolish the walls of discrimination, we want to raise the slogan of “national consensus” from there,” he said.

Massoud said the situation in Afghanistan was critical and the country’s laws were not enforced. “Even government leaders themselves confess that they are surrounded and cannot do anything without the help of foreigners.”

He said that he created the National Consensus program to steer the country out of the current crisis and strengthen national unity.

“There are many major issues that need to be understood in advance, for example the results of the upcoming elections should be transparent and acceptable to all unlike the past elections”, he added.

“It is our suggestion that we should have a credible national conesus before taking a step towards a national issue, we should know our common issues, resolve our problems and then go forward, it is important that everything should be acceptable to all,” he said.

He said that people should make ‘a framework’ for the government such as presidential, parliamentary, national unity or other frameworks.

He said the 50 plus one formula in the presidential election did not work in Afghanistan because many different tribes lived in the country.

To a question about the differences between the Presidential Palace and the former Balkh governor, Massoud said their plan had been a national unity government after the disputed elections but former US secretary of state, John Kerry, interfered ‘in a different form’ and created the current government.

He said the national unity government agreement could not be fully implemented as it had been expected in the past two years.

“Three years have already passed but the agreement is yet to be implemented. If the current government is legal then the president or the Chief Executive Officer has the right to sack someone.”

He said president and the CEO had a difference of opinions on many issues, a problem he said should be resolved according to the law.

Massoud said the first vice-president Abdul Rashid Dostum had been sent into exile and there were many other issues that had damaged the credibility of the national unity government.

Kandahar provincial council head Haji Sayed Jan Khakrizwal said that many tribal elders of Kandahar talked with Ahmad Wali Massoud who he said had promised to visit all provinces for strengthening national unity.

He also stressed transparency in the upcoming elections and said the current Independent Election Commission (IEC) was created in favor of the president and the CEO and was unacceptable to the people.

Khakrizwal said past governments had been unable to ensure peace in the country, therefore the leadership of the peace process should be handed over to Kandahar leaders.

He said that he was not against the government but wanted justice and their rights.